We have, of course, been reading to Esme since she was a baby. There have been many evolutions of this process over time, but the leap that we saw today was astounding and emotional and joyous. All the more so as it happened with a book I loved as a child, but haven't shared with her that much thus far.
On another blog post, I can remember writing about how, as a child, I always read The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter with my mom. I can remember saying, repeatedly, as we would finish the book, "When I grow up and become Peter Rabbit, I'm not going to go into Mr. McGregor's garden!" I pointed out the irony in that post that I grew up to be Mr. McGregor instead of Peter. (So much so that I have been known to chase rabbits, squirrels, and groundhogs around my yard with a rake.)
Today, along with a pile of other books, Esme presented me with The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She even told me to read that one first. So I gave her a little background ("Daddy loved this book!" "When you were a little boy?" "Yes, when Daddy was a little boy, Gran would read this book to him almost every day."), and launched in to reading. One of the new facets of reading with Esme is to ask her to find things in the pictures, or she will say she sees things that we have to find. I had her point to Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter under the tree, and Mother in front of the tree. I had her point to the tree itself, as it is the last thing mentioned on the opening page. But, before I could turn the page, she pointed to the beginning of the story, "Once upon a time, there were four little rabbits..."
"Oh," she said, pointing to the first letter. Not quite getting what she was saying, I asked her what she saw; what she was pointing at. She again said 'O', pointing to the larger-than-the-other-letters first letter on the page.
"Yes," I skeptically said, "that's the letter 'o'." I might have left it at that if she hadn't pointed to the middle of Flopsy's name.
"Oh," she said, then pointed to Mopsy's, and both of Cottontail's. "Oh, oh, oh."
At this point I got really excited. Keep in mind we're on page 1 of the story. I flipped the page and before I could start reading, she found and identified all the o's on the page. (Okay, so some of them she pointed to multiple times on her way to pointing out all the o's, but this is letter recognition in a 3.4 year old.) I read the page and asked her to identify Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, which she did in their red cloaks. Then I asked her where Peter was, and she pointed to the little bunny in the blue coat. (How she knew which one was Peter isn't clear to me, but she was certain -- and right.) We continued this process throughout half the book. Turn the page, she finds all (most) of the o's, then I read and she connects the picture to what I read.
She did point to some other letters, seeming to ask me what they were, so I identified N, T, and b for her. She seemed to not be as excited about that, but then she put her finger under the beginning of a word and said sounds as she ran her finger along the word. She stopped, moved to the next word, and repeated her sounding process. She did this for about a line and a half of text, not matching sounds with the letters or words, but indicating that she understood the concept that these strings of letters, one of which she could identify, related to the concept of speaking, or at least making sounds.
I then started at the top of the page and followed her process, pointing along each word as I read it to her. She let me do that as Mother got her basket and went to the bakers, but that slowed the story down and she didn't want it to continue on the subsequent pages. She did continue to point out o's, to Tina's and my disbelief. We each watched in amazement as we transitioned from upstairs to downstairs. She held the book and told us what was going on in the picture as she scanned the lines of text with her finger. When we got situated all together on the couch, Esme showed Tina how she could find the o's on a page. It did take a while, but we finished the book. Esme also identified the picture from the book that's at the bottom of her cereal bowl, a gift from my mom a year or two ago. And she was clear that Peter was a naughty rabbit who ought to listen to his mother.
If it stopped there, this would be an amazing enough day, but she didn't stop pointing out o's. On other books, on Tina's purse, on other pieces of paper. There were several times that she was starting to put herself in a vaguely dangerous situation (climbing on the table, stacking things so she could reach higher), but when asked what she was doing or being asked to get down, she would reach just a little further, point out an o, and proudly climb down safely.
Still later in the evening, when Tina was typing on her iPad trying to get some work done, Esme cuddled up next to her and started quizzing Tina on what the letters were on the screen's keyboard. Tina had to abandon work and set up a new document for Esme. For the next 20 minutes, Esme would type a letter and Tina would say the letter and it's main sound. At first, Esme's keystrokes seemed random, but there towards the end I watched Esme meticulously work across the keyboard from l to a and from p to q.
So, in the professional language of our trade, Esme today proved herself to be an emergent reader. Odd how one person gaining access to means of communication can leave others speechless.
For the past two and a half years, Esme has been attending the Rutland County Parent Child Center in Brandon while Tina and I have been working. For the past year, she has been attending the pre K classroom program at Neshobe School. On August 9, the childcare center held a graduation ceremony for the students entering Kindergarten in the fall. They had songs, gowns, and tributes to the kids.
